When the Nationals signed Rafael Soriano to a two-year, $28 million contract late in the off-season, I had three reactions:

• The Nationals certainly are all-in to win now. With two capable closers already on the roster, they still gave Soriano a contract that will make him the game’s highest-paid closer this year.

• Scott Boras has done it again. Just when Soriano’s decision to opt out of a $14 million salary from the Yankees was looking like a mistake, Boras somehow secured him an upgraded contract.

• Poor Drew Storen. First, he had an entire off-season to think about his spectacularly blown save that ended the Nationals’ season. Now he had to absorb another punch to the gut. He had lost his job as closer for the next two years.

Storen, 25, knows little else but closing. He was a closer at Stanford, was drafted as a closer with the 10th pick in the 2009 draft had saved 43 games in his second year out of college. After missing the first half of 2012 with an elbow injury, Storen had worked his way back into closing and was thriving until he blew a two-run lead with the Nationals just three outs from the NL Championship Series.

No wonder he wasn’t thrilled when pitching coach Steve McCatty called him with a too-late heads-up the day that Soriano signed.

“I’d already seen it,” Storen shrugs. “Just part of it. I’d rather not say anything about it. It’s understood. It is what it is.”

He didn’t hide his disappointment from McCatty but no one since has heard him gripe. Given the way the season ended, he’s not exactly in position to garner much sympathy. More important, Storen can see what is ahead. With the strongest roster in the game, the Nationals will enter the season as the pick of most to win the National League. To have a 25-year-old upstart pop off about his role could only lead to trouble.

“You get caught up in that stuff, it takes you away from what you need to concentrate on,” Storen said. “Even if you sit there and say you’re not going to worry about it, well if you need to say that, you are worrying about it. You just roll with it.”

No one has told Storen will be his new role though he figures to split set-up duties with Tyler Clippard, the team’s closer for much of last season. Whatever, Storen is saying the right stuff. “It’s all the same adrenaline rush when you’re pitching in front of a full house and playing for something,” he said.

That Storen is putting his team ahead of his own ambition has not gone unnoticed in the clubhouse. If Storen had complained about losing his job without a fight, Jayson Werth would not have been so quick to tell reporters that Storen was pitching with a bad back at the end of last season. Though GM Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Johnson sounded surprised to hear Werth’s claim, they could not have been that disappointed to see a teammate sticking up for a teammate. That’s what happens on winning teams and, as Storen knows, in successful bullpens.

Other closer changes

The Nationals aren’t the only contender contemplating a closer change. Of the 10 teams to reach the playoffs last year, four others also could open the season with a new closer.

Reds. Last year: Aroldis Chapman. This year: Jonathan Broxton. Chapman hasn’t started his latest audition to make the rotation so the decision on his role remains on simmer in Cincinnati. Whenever Walt Jocketty and Dusty Baker get down to the nitty-gritty, it would be fun to be a fly on the wall. If Baker doesn’t get his way, he still can turn to an experienced hand in Broxton. But Broxton has been known to amp up the anxiousness ofmany managers.

Tigers. Last year: Jose Valverde. This year: Bruce Rondon. The Tigers might not name a closer in spring training but you can be sure of two things: It won’t be Valverde, who remains unemployed. It will be Rondon, the 22-year-old rookie with the triple-digit fastball.

Athletics: Last year: Grant Balfour. This year: Ryan Cook. Knee surgery has made Balfour’s status uncertain for the start of the season. If he’s not ready, the A’s can turn to Cook who, as a rookie last year, was the A’s lone representative on the All-Star team.

Yankees. Last year: Rafael Soriano. This year: Mariano Rivera. It sounds strange to say the greatest closer of all time has some large shoes to fill but that shows how well Soriano did after taking over last year. From May 10 on, Soriano saved 42 games with a 2.26 ERA.